How is Chernobyl today? Is it possible to recover naturally?

The Chernobyl nuclear accident left a huge toxic area. But scientists report that they have observed some "unusual" signs in this area-the latest discovery is that a young wolf walked out of the Chernobyl isolation zone.

This no-man's land covers an area of about 4300 square kilometers, and it is still considered to be seriously polluted and uninhabitable today. However, without the interference of human activities, some wild animals seem to have been able to thrive and start to break through the boundaries of the isolation zone. May carry mutant genes

Chernobyl used to be the safest and most reliable nuclear power plant in people's eyes. However, after the loud noise of 1986, fireworks went up into the sky, which completely shattered this myth.

According to official statistics of Ukraine, as of 2006, about 2.4 million Ukrainians (including 428,000 children) were affected by the radiation of this accident, resulting in physical and mental health problems. Human health problems are mainly affected by radioactive substance iodine-13 1. Strontium -90 and cesium-137 will cause more lasting pollution to the soil. Plants, insects and mushrooms absorb cesium-137 from the soil, and contaminated food may appear on human dining tables. Therefore, some scientists worry that nuclear radiation will affect the local area for centuries.

In February, 20 15, researchers installed a GPS global positioning device on 13 wolves and began to monitor their every move. Through GPS positioning, scientists can learn more about how nuclear decay affects these wild animals.

Not long ago, scientists accidentally discovered that the GPS locator on a 3-year-old male gray wolf was far away from the nuclear radiation area-it wandered about 369 kilometers. This is the first time that scientists have tracked a wolf leaving the radioactive Chernobyl area and reached such a long distance.

The researchers believe that this discovery may indicate the signs of further expansion of the number of wild animals in the future, but at the same time, the mutant genes it carries may also spread.

This is not an "ecological black hole"

After the nuclear accident, the Chernobyl disaster area became a "ghost domain". It is said that the Soviet government evacuated more than 90,000 residents, and a large area of modern residential areas was listed as a blockade.

However, in the past 30 years, the forbidden area of human beings has become the territory of animals-the British Center for Ecology and Hydrology has previously launched a tree project to assess the risk of nuclear radiation. The researchers installed 40 automatic cameras in the disaster area to track wild animals, and photographed a brown bear pacing in the snow outside the fence, probably foraging. The camera also includes more local animals-bobcats, wild boars, gray wolves, deer, horses and otters who ignore radiation.

Michael Beilner, a scientist at the University of Missouri-Columbia, is one of the scientists who monitor and analyze wolves wearing GPS locators. He said that in Chernobyl area, the number of wolves is seven times that of other unpolluted areas.

This is probably due to the large-scale evacuation of human beings, and the pressure and interference on the local ecology have also dropped sharply, providing certain opportunities for animals to return to their habitats. Some large mammals appeared here almost immediately, and their numbers increased rapidly in no man's land.

Bernard believes that the Chernobyl isolation zone is far from an "ecological black hole" and migration behavior is likely to appear on other wild animals.

However, this study also found that another 12 wolf wearing GPS stayed in his "hometown". Generally speaking, wolves, as social animals, rarely "run away from home", let alone run hundreds of kilometers away. It is not excluded that the number of wolves is too dense, and a wild wolf will spread outward. At present, scientists don't know what happened to the escaped wolf.

There are still many controversial issues.

Despite cameras, locators and continuous investigations, in fact, scientists still don't know the overall impact of the Chernobyl disaster on the local wildlife population. The study found some evidence of increased mutation rate of animals, but the overall situation is still unclear.

This is also the reason why scientists monitor these gray wolves, which thrive here in an amazing number and are quite representative.

Now, a bold and determined wolf has gone far beyond the quarantine area. The amount of radiation carried by this escapee has little influence on the human beings in the area where it appears, but through it, scientists can further reveal how the gene mutation enters a wider animal population, in other words, how far the gene of the wild animal mutated by nuclear radiation can spread.

However, the extent of this "mutation" is another controversial issue in the scientific community.

According to a study on 20 16, the impact of the accident on the surrounding ecological environment will not fade, or even be permanent. The report released by the research team of the University of South Carolina and Columbia University shows that the radiation leaked from the Chernobyl nuclear accident has caused abnormal changes in the biological ecosystem in the surrounding areas.